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GAY BELFAST NEWS for December 2005
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Belfast City Hall hosts first civil partnership ceremony (19 December 2005)
Five gay couples in Northern Ireland were making history today as the first in the UK or Ireland to have their partnerships legally recognised. Two lesbian couples and one male couple were due to "tie the gay knot" during civil partnership ceremonies in Belfast's City Hall. One lesbian couple was also set to exchange vows in Antrim, at the town's civic offices, while another same-sex couple were registering their relationship in Newry. Ballymena-born Grainne Close (32), and her US partner Shannon Sickels (27), were expected to be the first to hold a "gay wedding" in Belfast. It was expected that the first ceremony would be in Derry, where the registration office opens earlier than Belfast, but the couple postponed because of the massive media interest. Sonia Drain (35), and Pauline McConnell (38), were due to register their partnership at Antrim today. Speaking before the ceremony, Sonia said she was nervous but looking forward to it. "We've known each other now for about 14 months, although we've only been going out for eight weeks," she said. "We joked about getting registered at the start, but then we talked about it seriously and the two us just knew that was what we wanted. "Family and friends have been fantastic. They see that we are very happy."Today's ceremonies have been hailed as the most significant historical event for Northern Ireland's gay community, by leading gay rights organisation the Rainbow Project. Security was stepped up at Belfast City Hall as fundamentalist Christian protesters gathered to voice their opposition to the new legal partnerships. The Stop the Parade coalition - which was set up to oppose the annual gay pride festival in Belfast - has "rebranded" itself for the occasion as The Christian Reform Foundation. The group's spokesman Jonathan Larner said the protest would be visible and vocal, yet lawful. "I believe that civil partnerships are a sinful parody of the marriage bond and it undermines that bond by trying to make a moral equivalent with a sinful lifestyle," said Mr Larner.
Outside the City Hall there was a lorry carrying a large billboard picturing a heterosexual married couple approved with a huge green tick, alongside a gay couple in wedding dress with a dismissive red 'X'.
Free Presbyterian ministers were also planning to preach about the sanctity of marriage throughout the day.
The Anti-Racism Network urged supporters to come out and publicly show their backing for same-sex couples and the new legislation.
"This is a day for celebration for anyone committed to equality and an end to discrimination," said spokeswoman Barbara Muldoon.
"This is a hard won day where recognition will be given for the first time that no group in our society is entitled to monopolise love and partnership."
The Civil Partnership Act allows same-sex couples property and inheritance rights equal to married heterosexual couples.
The legislation will also entitle gay couples to the same pension, immigration and tax benefits.
It is only open to homosexual relationships and cannot be used as an alternative to heterosexual marriage.
The first ceremonies in Scotland take place tomorrow, while couples in England and Wales can register their partnerships from Wednesday.
Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast
Nor is Brokeback Mountain alone on cinema screens in exploring gender themes. Philip Seymour Hoffman was named best actor at the critics' awards for his mesmerising portrayal in Capote of the gay writer Truman Capote.
In limited release in the US today, meanwhile, is TransAmerica, starring Felicity Huffman - who appears in Desperate Housewives - as a man striving to become a woman through surgery and hormone treatment. That film too has drawn warm critical praise from almost every quarter.
Also playing to US audiences are The Dying Gaul, starring Peter Sarsgaard as a grief-stricken gay screenwriter seduced by Hollywood, and Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, the tale of a young transvestite in Northern Ireland who becomes ensnared in Republican terrorism while pursuing his identity as a man living as a woman.
That there should be such a landslide of gay-themed films seems almost obtuse given the political landscape in the US, which is experiencing a conservative backlash to recent progress made - at least in one state, Massachusetts - towards gender rights and gay marriage. But the fact of it becoming such an important socio-political controversy may explain why directors have been attracted to it.
By far the most ambitious of these films is Brokeback Mountain. While its studio, Focus Features, describes it as a love story that happens to play out between men, it remains remarkable because it dares to show the physicality of the love, even if the sex scenes are brief and relatively discreet.
It is not that Hollywood has been eschewing gay roles. Since the same-sex sitcom Will & Grace hit network television, there has been no shortage of them in films. Almost never are they leading protagonists, however, and they often serve as comic relief.
So the big question is: how will Brokeback Mountain fare? If middle America is as conservative as some assume, could such a film - however stunning its cinematography and exceptional its acting - do anything more than attract the art-house crowd, women, and of course, gays and lesbians? Aware of the challenge, the studio has adopted almost a stealth strategy in distribution. The film opened in just five cinemas at the weekend and will not go on general release in the US until the new year.
Early estimates show Brokeback Mountain achieved a higher per-screen box office take than any other film this year. The combination of hot ticket sales and rapturous reviews could catapult it to mainstream audiences. "I hope 'the heartland,' so to speak, is more mature than it's made out to be," remarked Ledger of the film.
Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast Forum Belfast couple Henry Kane and Christopher Flanagan, were among the first to register their intentions at Belfast City Hall.
Mr Flanagan said they went through the paperwork and discussed their choice of music and vows. "It's taking us seriously as being a couple," he said.
"There's a lot of stigma about gay people being promiscuous, and it's just showing that we're two people together and we want to show our love so we're getting married just like a normal couple would get married." Mr Kane said that they needed the security of a legal framework to ensure property rights and that their wishes would be respected. Mr Flanagan said while "a lot of people don't class it as a traditional wedding they class it as a civil partnership", to him and his partner it was a wedding.
Sean Morrin from the Rainbow Project said that it was the most "significant day that the gay community has experienced".
"The whole idea that our relationships will now be recognised legally that equal rights will be handed out to same gender couples is amazing," he said.
Discuss this article on the Gay Belfast
Forum Political Links: SDLP - Ulster Unionists - DUP - Alliance Party - Sinn Fein - Green PartyCowboy film heads the gay charge to glory at the Oscars (13 December 2005)
The buzz that has been gripping Hollywood for weeks - that the best route to Oscar glory may lie in straight actors playing gay roles - is looking closer to reality with early awards and outstanding initial word-of-mouth for Brokeback Mountain, the cowboy epic with a same-sex twist.
Starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two ranch hands who, in 1962, form more than just a platonic bond in the craggy landscapes of Wyoming, Brokeback Mountain was named best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association at the weekend. Ang Lee won best director.
Lee, the Taiwanese director of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and his two stars could hardly have hoped for a better launch for the film as the awards season gets under way in Hollywood, notably with the unsealing of Golden Globe nominations today and the Oscar nods not far away.
Also stirred by the film's early omens have been the hearts of America's gay and lesbian community, which is agog to see whether, with its two box-office stars and almost universal critical approval, it can break the mould of on-screen gay caricature and attract a truly mainstream audience.
Belfast gay couples in partnership move (5 December 2005)
Gay couples in Northern Ireland have started to put their names forward for civil union ceremonies. The first ceremonies in the UK under the Civil Partnerships Act can take place in the province on 19 December. It will enable gay and lesbian couples to form civil partnerships after decades of campaigning for a change in the law. Twenty couples made provisional bookings for registration at Belfast City Hall and six in Londonderry.
Northern Ireland will now become the first to hold a same sex ceremony, with Scotland and England and Wales following on 20 and 21 December respectively.
Under the law, couples who want to form a partnership must register their intentions with local councils.
